Christine's walking & birds blog

The coal tit was finding what looked like tiny larvae in the moss on the wall.

Just after I'd taken a photo along the iced-over loch, another small bird came flying high towards us out of the seemingly lifeless frozen scenery, calling repeatedly. 

The call was a pleasing, falling "chyoo", similar to a reed bunting's call but less sharp and emphatic. Luckily for us it landed on the roof of the control tower, and I was thrilled to see it was a snow bunting.

The bunting didn't hang around but soon flew off in the direction of the road and the wind-farm.

We pulled into the Fannichs lay-by as we'd spotted red grouse near here yesterday. One was immediately visible....

.....and then a much closer one popped its head up above the bank of snow that had been heaped there by a snow-plough. There were about fifteen grouse altogether.

A buzzard was glimpsed from the car on the high moors, flying and gliding very low above the ground; and common dolphins were seen quite far up Loch Broom and also from West Terrace in the village. A nice outing on a very cold day!

Yesterday: A raven was calling and displaying above the dam, and as we walked back to the car we spotted a golden eagle - which was already flying away from us.

At the other end of the loch, a reed bunting flew from bush to bush, keeping low in the freezing weather; and several red grouse were seen in flight.